Indigeny and Energetics is a redefinition of the historical process of the development of the sacred human relationship to land and nature. This relationship is universal, a global naturo-spiritual dynamic with social, political, technological and environmental ramifications. Application of these concepts redefines the primacy and importance of the indigenous human experience and projects a positive human developmental outcome that cannot take place without this redefinition.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I have yet to see how a religion brought by an invading colonizer, used as a weapon of confusion and cultural devolution by that colonizer, manifested as a direct ideology and embodiment of colonization, somehow proposed as an exclusive path to "salvation" by that colonizer can be in any way, shape or form any kind of truly long-term functional agent of liberation for those that have been colonized.

I have studied, seen and been told how Africans used "the church" and the church buildings for radical and important actions of political movement and strategic planning. I have seen how the broken-hearted souls of disembodied indigeny have gained some semblance of energetic rejuvenation in the face of seemingly insurmountable imperialistic odds (have you seen a 70 year old woman get "sanctified", get the "holy ghost" in a baptist church in the African community here on Turtle Island?!). I have seen scores of suited, tied, fancy-dressed indigenous peoples from North and South America, from Asia and India, from Africa show up in nice, big cars and european hair cuts, "good english" drizzling off their tongues, sure to go to nice "jobs" on monday folk flooding in and out of churches, rosaries dripping off their fingers, bibles clutched to their sides as if their lives depended on them for air. I've felt the economic weight of the millions upon millions of hard-earned dollars pouring - no - raining tempestuously into church coffers feeding the predatory impulse of the cultural debacle of "mission". I have heard the anguish in the voices of the "saved" as they declare their allegiance to a Jesus who doesn't look like them, clamouring for some semblance of self in a world that continually seeks to wipe their Ancestral memory from the face of the earth.

I have not seen any of these people speak to the nature of redemption of the most heinous crimes of genocide, colonialism, settler-colonialism, neo-colonialism, neo-liberalism and fascism. I have not seen their book nor their god smite any of the colonizers down in their tracks. I have not seen the fiery uprising continued unabated in those church buildings nor in the fetid catacombs that we can now call "the church". I have not seen these people, so somehow empowered by their new colonial god-man, speak or act in accordance with the needs of people on earth in such a way that suggests that they are anything but insane, at the very least insane enough to think that a tool that was brought by their historical conqueror is anything but a tool of continued conquest and cultural genocide.

I have seen them pimp starving, dying children in African villages to raise money for "mission" work (see the 'work' of Jim Robison et al). I have heard them unapologetically refer to indigenous missionary targets as "savages" (see EWTN's "Life On The Rock" live world broadcast during World Youth Day - 47:31 in on the DVD). I have seen THEM refer to the process of proselytization and mission work as "imperialistic", while their white privilege declared that they "respect" other (non-european) cultures (see Pathways International blog post on "cultural contamination"). I have seen them disrespect African and indigenous culture on their young adult tv programming (see "Knights of St. Michael" on EWTN, the roamin catholic cable channel). I have seen them BE the "1%". I have seen them claim in word and deed that north and south America should be a "christian continent" (see papal statements on the Knights of Columbus website). I have seen them aggrandize and deify the name and legacy of one of the world's worst, most beloved (by them) and most correctly maligned international criminals, Criminal Columbus.

It is somehow possible that this "G-O-D" is a god of colonialism? I have seen many claim "Columbia" as the goddess of freedom. Was she not the european image of the viral wave of Manifest Destiny? Why is it that this "G-O-D" and the people who claim him as the highest expression of truth and righteous existence truly have no message of redemption or salvation or liberation against a globalizing corporatocracy gone vampirically mad on the black blood of the earth's bowels, of the now clouding, clotting blood of the riverine arteries and capillaries of the ailing Earth Mother?

"Yea, that we must look up to the lord(s). Turn ye heads away from that demon earth that pulls ye from a lord on high. She is a barren harlot. Raise your voices to him that loveth you best. Turn your heads from the demon Ancestor that your heathen ways claim as your false creators. Yea, shall you bask in the warmth of G-O-D that runneth down your sinful body, ignore that that warmth be your very own blood as the cross of your redeemer has been thrust into the flesh of your sinful back, now bowed and weary in righteous supplication to the lord(s). When your blood of original sin is finally drained from your vessel, it is then that ye shall be saved, for thou needest saving. Forget ye your demonic past. Your truth is in the Book, the Word spaketh by the lord(s) himself. It is so, because.....that book says it is so." Coyote 3:14-21

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" In 1863, a Catholic priest named Jean de Smet, after sojourning illegally in the Black Hills, reported the presence of gold there. In short order, this incentive proved sufficient to cause Washington to violate the new treaty, sending Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his elite 7th Cavalry Regiment (heavily reinforced) to explore the Hills. [emphasis mine]" - Ward Churchill, pg. 70, "The Earth Is Our Mother", as in "From A Native Son: Selected Essays on Indigenism, 1985-1995", South End Press, Boston, MA, 1996

About Me

Ukumbwa Sauti, M.Ed. is a professor of cultural media studies, a facilitator of cultural media literacy and is fully engaged in research in areas of nature, media, indigenous culture and spirituality and the effects of modernity on the indigenous soul. He is trained in Indigenous African Spiritual Technologies in the Dagara tradition by Malidoma Some’ and Alwyn Thomas that includes ritual, numerology and divination. Ukumbwa completed the Dagara Elder Initiation in July of 2009. Ukumbwa is a member of East Coast Village in Cherry Plain, NY and a growing number of spiritual individuals and communities that are brave enough to know that the sustenance of human life on this earth is based upon a different and traditional, indigenous relationship with Nature and Spirit.
Ukumbwa is committed to engaging people and communities everywhere in a dialogue, a multilogue that informs, inspires, challenges and motivates us toward progressive and healing and balanced human behaviors with regard to each other and the natural world around us.